I am so excited to share with you a new book: Roja! The Crazy and Fun Adventures of a Smart Little Dog with Magical Powers and the Family who Adopted Her (ages 8-12); a project that has been in the works for some time written in collaboration with Marcos Ortiz Cué and illustrated by Macarena…
Author: Almudena Ortiz Cue
Private Training for Snake Avoidance – Using Reward Based Methods
Offer Begins: May 10th 2016 ends June 15th 2016 If you train your dog often by following science based and well designed training protocols your dog clearly stands a much higher chance of moving away from a snake if he ever encounters one. Via private training we will teach your dog how not to approach…
Managing Greetings at the Front Door
Our dogs do not shake our hand or hug us when they want to say hi. Instead, they jump on us because they want to access our faces and mouths. This goes way back to their wolf past. Wolves regurgitate food to give to their pups so pups learn to lick their parent’s mouth to…
Size Matters!
I was called to a case where a large dog weighing 50lbs had killed a smaller dog weighing only 10 lbs. The details of what happened were somewhat sketchy since my client was not there to witness the event. As best I could, I gathered information from third parties to try and understand what happen….
Should dogs meet on leash?
There are many examples that illustrate how our nature is so different from our dogs. Both species are highly social beings, but how we go about being social really differs. I realize in talking to clients that they think it is a good idea to have their dog meet others on leash because they want…
Playing & Training for Reliability in Predatory Behaviors, part 2
As a continuation to last week’s post, here are some specific ways by which you cannot only give your dog a “legal” outlet for predatory behaviors and up your chances that you will be able to stop your dog from chasing after wildlife, cars, etc. As I stated last week, predatory behaviors, which in plain…
Can We STOP Our Dogs From Chasing?
As we all know, canines are predators. As such they all come hard-wired for chasing after their food. Even our domesticated pampered dogs come hard-wired for hot pursuit even when a warm dinner awaits them – day in and day out. How close to the surface are these hard-wired behaviors varies from dog to dog….
Generalization and Discrimination – Two Important Concepts
These two concepts really shed some light as to how dogs learn. They are important for us to understand because it will help us feel less frustrated when things with our dog are not going our way and to maximize learning. Dogs do not generalize: Here is an example of what generalization means: If I…
Setting Boundaries
I have often read and even used the phrase myself of “setting boundaries” for dogs. But what exactly do we mean by this? And why (and if) should we set boundaries? The dictionary defines boundary as: a line that marks the limits of an area; a dividing lines. A boundary wall. A limit of a…
It’s a Revolution!
One of my colleagues and I are having a conversation about the state of affairs in the world of animal training- specifically we are talking about dogs. We both have reached the conclusion that hearing about misconstruction, inhumane methods of training in the name of helping animals wears really heavy on us. We agree to…